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Prince Andrew Avenue in Melbourne’s north may be renamed after its famous namesake was stripped of his titles last week amid controversy over his long relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Whittlesea City Council said on Monday that some residents in Lalor had inquired about changing the name of their street after Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s fall from grace.
Tony George first lived on Prince Andrew Avenue in the 1970s.Credit: Jason South
Although The Age was unable to find the resident who raised the issue with council, locals who spoke with this masthead on the street on Tuesday offered modest support for a change.
Tony George, who lives on Prince Andrew Avenue, was fine with a new name.
“If they’ve got to do it, they’ve got to do it,” he said.
“I knew this would come up eventually.”
A spokesperson for Whittlesea Council said the municipality had sought advice from Geographic Names Victoria (GNV) and were told a name change application required support from a majority of affected residents.
The naming rules for places in Victoria say road names should be enduring and changed only when necessary.
“Should there be clear support from residents of the street for a name change, council will undertake a formal consultation process and, if appropriate, submit a renaming proposal to GNV for assessment,” a Whittlesea spokesperson said.
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“Council is currently liaising with the residents who inquired about a name change to discuss next steps. At this stage, a formal renaming process has not commenced.”
Michael Labrador, the Lalor Ward councillor, backed a name change.
“My personal view, is if someone has been disgraced and has lost their title, we shouldn’t honour them with a street name,” he said.
The late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a prominent accuser of convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, alleged Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her.
In 2014, the former prince was named in US court papers in which Roberts Giuffre alleged she was trafficked to Andrew at least three times by Epstein and paid $US15,000 to have sex with him.
Prince Andrew Avenue in Lalor.Credit: Jason South
Andrew then made a disastrous appearance on BBC Newsnight in November 2019, in which he denied ever meeting Roberts Giuffre, and stated he had had no contact with Epstein since December 2010.
Roberts Giuffre lodged a civil claim for sexual assault in August 2021, and a US judge rejected Andrew’s attempt to have the case thrown out. Andrew settled out of court in February 2022, months before it was due to go to trial.
An infamous photo has also circulated showing the prince with his arm around 17-year-old Roberts Giuffre in Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s London apartment in 2001.
The publication of Roberts Giuffre’s posthumous memoir last month heaped more pressure on Andrew, leading to King Charles to formally scrap his younger brother’s status as a prince and a duke.
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